…Over EO Group`s dealings with Kosmos
Posted: The Chronicle |Wednesday, January 27, 2010
By Charles Takyi - Boadu
A pressure group, Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) yesterday catalogued a wide range of issues and events that took place during period of the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) to buttress their claim that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) have a penchant of stifling and crippling indigenous businesses.
This was when the group addressed a press conference in Accra to ridicule what they see as political persecution of the EO group by government.
Spokesman for the group, Anthony Karbo recalled how Mr. Jerry Rawlings-led PNDC , which eventually gave birth to the NDC, set its regime on the premise of attacking indigenous businessmen, which saw the seizure of J.K Siaw’s TATA Brewery Company, the vandalisation and freezing of Dr. Kwame Safo-Adu’s pharmaceutical company and his assets, B.A Mensah’s International Tobacco Ghana (ITG) and Appiah Menka’s Apino soap, among a host of others, labeling them as thieves and imperialist collaborators.
The group expressed shock at the manner in which government is handling the whole KOSMOS/EO energy deal, describing it as politically motivated, since according to AFAG -“the raiding of the office and residence of George Owusu by the Police; the intimation by the Attorney General to KOSMOS USA to terminate the appointment of George Owusu, the freezing of his bank accounts and Assets since November 2009 are ominous signs.”
What seems to bother AFAG is what they describe as the deliberate silence of leading members of the current NDC government; notably Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, Alhaji Amadu Sorogho, Hon. Moses Asaga and Dr. Kwame Ampofo, who were part of the parliamentary select committee that worked on the agreement, stressing that this is worrying, since it gives room for several interpretations.
However, Moses Asaga has told The Chronicle that he and his other colleagues do not see anything wrong with government’s position since they have not abrogated the contract with Kosmos. According to him, they can only raise an issue with the government if the contract with Kosmos is being terminated and it is brought to parliament.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General has allegedly preffered 25 charges against the EO group, amongst which are; failure to call an annual general meeting in the year 2003, failure to circulate profit/loss account, balance sheet and reports of the company, establishing a business contrary to the Investment Promotion Act.
The rest of the charges include forging the signature of the Partner, causing a Financial Loss of $1.325bn to GNPC, money laundering in violation of the Exchange Control Act, travelling with $10,000.00 through the Kotoka International Airport without declaring to Airport Officials.
For AFAG, these are politically motivated charges calculated to dent the image of Mr. George Owusu and Dr. Bawuah Edusei in the corporate world and devalue Kosmos shares.
But for the perseverance and dedication of the EO group, after being rejected by 12 oil companies in USA, AFAG believes “Ghana wouldn’t have found the Jubilee oil fields” since according to them “as of 2002, all major oil companies regarded oil exploration in Ghana as high risk and a grave yard’.
This, they said led to the departure of companies like Hunt Oil in 1999, Fusion Oil and gas from Australia in 1999, Santa Fe in 2000, NUEVO in 2002 and Dana 2005.
However, they noted that all the wells drilled by these companies unfortunately yielded no viable commercial discoveries. The E.O Group was then said to have facilitated a visit to Ghana by Vanco Energy which resulted in Vanco taking an oil exploration block in Ghana.
The EO group without success with Vanco, solicited interest from many companies including Texaco, Oxy, Shell, Hess, the Chinese oil company who were all reluctant to come to Ghana due to the risk.
“The Irony of it is that, China Oil Company which refused an offer by EO to explore Oil in Ghana in 2003 are now in a position to buy the $4billion shares of Kosmos in order to produce. What a case of ‘monkey dey work, baboon dey chop’”, it said.
In December 2003, AFAG noted that the EO group came into contact with the Technical personnel of Kosmos Energy whose primary focus was to explore for high risk petroleum prospects in Africa.
This group previously of Triton Energy had found oil in Equatorial Guinea in 1999.
It was thus said to have entered into private negotiations with Kosmos on the sidelines and E.O was entitled to 3.5% working interest and not the Ghana government as have been portrayed, stressing that the EO share of 3.5% is not deductible from the government of Ghana’s share but from Kosmos.
This, according to AFAG cannot be said to be causing financial loss to the state, emphasizing that “this deal of 90% to the exploring private firm and 10% to the state was introduced by Tsatsu Tsikata, then GNPC Boss, as an enticement, sufficient enough to bring foreign experts to explore at their own cost.”
This is the case of the agreement between Ghana (10%) and Dana (90%), Ghana (10%) and Hunt Oil (90%) and also that of Ghana (10%) and Nuevo (90%), all signed by Tsatsu Tsikata in 1998, 1997 and 1999 respectively.
According to AFAG, this provision has been there, before the EO group joined in the search and was in accordance with the Ghana Petroleum Law, approved by the GNPC Board, the Ministry of Energy and Cabinet and unanimously ratified by Parliament in July 2004.
“Indeed Dr. Paa Kwasi Ndoum was the then Energy Minister who signed the agreement prior to the necessary paper works” they said. For this reason, AFAG noted “if the A-G’s outfit has any questions arising out of a deal that has been ratified by Parliament, the most appropriate forum to seek redress is the Supreme Court”, stating that “it cannot be a crime for a Ghanaian to properly secure and own shares in a multi national company.”
It asked -“if owning shares in companies were to be a crime, then why are we not witnessing a parade of such cases, but only witnessing the political persecution of just George Owusu and the EO Group?”
AFAG claimed it is aware of the fact that ANADARKO (the main Oil rig operator in the Jubilee field) Petroleum’s preliminary investigations in accordance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for any possible fraudulent dealings had the EO group exonerated, therefore asking the basis of the supposed persecution of the company and its management.
“We foresee the long political arm of the A-G in this issue but government must learn from the words of William Cunningham; A man will not risk what he has in trade, except for the prospect of very large gains, if he is likely to be robbed by pirates, or to be oppressed by the Government if he is successful in business”.
Furthermore, AFAG said “government should neither rob nor dissipate the wealth of its indigenes, and as stated by Thomas Hobbes -the riches, power and honour of a country arise only from the riches, strength and reputation of its countrymen. For no Country can be rich, nor glorious, nor secure, whose citizens are either poor, contemptible, or too weak through want, or dissention”.